Popi you are joking, did I read that right like its OK to have a noxious weed growing in your garden so it will disperse seeds everywhere even into the bushland, or the dear little birds will get in and do their bit too, but not OK for nurseries to be allowed to sell it. If its a noxious weed it should not be in the garden either.

That does not make sense, and what about Sunday markets as I find those places sell more noxious weeds than nurseries will ever sell, now if I knew I had a noxious weed growing in my garden did not matter how pretty it looked, it would be pulled out, put in plastic bag let to cook for a few days in the sun then into the wheelie bin it would go. So all we can hope is that most people will do that when they realise it is a noxious weed, before it gets to be a bad problem.......Cheers..MM.

Ha! I have never trusted gaura. I knew it was going to turn out to be a bad egg the first time I saw it. I could never understand all the fuss people made!

Yes, SMH Domain section, article by Jennifer Stackhouse. Page 7.

I think it may only apply to NSW, though.

The plants have been given a schedule 5 listing, which means they cant be sold or distributed. This is the lowest category on the schedule and it has been imposed to prevent the spread of a weed or its introduction.

I am glad, they are both very weedy, and I am sick of clearing lantana from bushland !

Lantana and ALL its hybrids have been declared a weed of national significance. This was done by the Federal Govt about 2 years ago. From memory it was classified as a P3 (or Class 3) weed.

And about time too.

Doug.

they won't promote lantana or even grounsel to the noxious must be removed at land owners cost list, because there is much more of those 2 growing in state forests and council reserves than anywhere else and they don't want the cost of having to clean up their back yard first.

no good declaring something a weed and banning its sale in registered nurseries when it can be sold in markets or even kept in gardens it will just keep spreading regardless.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Does this include the different lantana, the stuff that nurseries have been selling that is a ground cover, doesn't get berries and doesn't spread very quickly? If so, why? Does it mutate into something more aggressive, or what?

Hilljill,
As I stated above: All lantana and its hyrids have been declared a weed of national significance.
Lantana is an environmental weed. ie. a plant that can be invasive and become naturalised in the environment.
Noxious weeds are poisonous so I would think Lantana is a noxious environmental weed.
There are many classifications of weeds and it is interesting to see the list and see what is banned and what is not.

Apparently the hybrids themselves are sterile but the pollen is still viable back to the parent plant. This is hearsay so I cannot categorically say it is correct.

If you want more info there is plenty on the web. QLD and NSW Govts have done a lot of research into this or so I am told.

HillJill, although the hybrids are supposedly sterile, they can still pollinate the wild stuff. It surprises me, the number of council-owned places that still have the ornamental lantanas growing.

I guess my Gaura knew it had been declared a noxious weed, because it comitted suicide over the summer...

len, when the gov't first put lantana on a list after, as you know, years of legislative inaction, many home gardeners here were defensive about the ornamental varieties. But I don't hear that now and I haven't seen any in a market etc for ages. Sure there are weeds sold, last one I saw was water lettuce.

The lantana hilljill mentions would be creeping lantana, L. montevidensis. Wild CL has made a major mess of natural places like Kroombit Tops and is also a significant weed of productive land. Even vegetatively, it spreads aggressively and doesn't mind droughts or flood scoured ground....this is what I observe on our place. It's the same species as the one you describe and allowing a 'tame' version wouldn't make sense to weed scientists. A most dedicated bunch imo.
Rose

I unwittingly inflicted gauras on my in-laws. They loved them at first but fortunately decided to eradicate them. I'm sure I've seen a smaller pinker gaura at the nursery, I wonder what the story is with that? Just yesterday I went for a walk at the local park and there in the high grass around the pond lurked a gaura. Nearest houses would be at least 50 metres away and I'm not sure if any of them have gauras. How far can they travel?